QSR1836/3/5/19

Depositions and examination - Elizabeth Gentle of Stotfold charged with stealing 20 hens from John Harris

1 June 1836

From: 1836 To: 1836

John Harris of Stotfold, yeoman – on a Saturday night early in April he saw his hen house safely locked up at about 10pm. There were a great many hens in it. Early the next morning the door was found broken open and about 20 hens or more had been taken. John Porter of Stotfold, labourer – on Easter Monday morning he saw Sarah Blows, Sarah Tansley and Elizabeth Gentle getting over a stile belonging to the Murrell Close near Stotfold. He saw Blows drop a dead hen. He watched them and saw them go into the Murrell Hedge near the brook. After they were gone he went there and found 2 dead hens in the brook just where they had been and took them to John Harris’s house. A few days later they all went to Mr Hull’s the magistrates and took the hens. John Howard went with them. The place where he found the fowls was 5 or 6 poles out of the lane. John Howard – on the Monday morning he was working in the barn. He saw the hens soon afterwards, and went with Porter and the hens to Mr Hull’s. He is sure one of the hens belonged to his master John Harris because it had previously belonged to him. He brought it up from a pullet. Elizabeth Gentle – she, Sarah Blows and Sarah Tansley were going to Norton where Sarah Blows lives on Easter Monday morning. They found the fowls at the top of an orchard near the footpath, covered over with grass. They picked them up and carried them a little way. Finding they were not good they threw them away, publicly so that anybody might see them.

item

Gentle, Elizabeth,
Blows, Sarah,
Tansley, Sarah,
Harris, John,
Porter, John,
Howard, John

STOTFOLD, Stotfold fields, stealing animals, fowls, hens, farm labourer